If you will open your Bibles
with me today to 1 Chronicles chapter 17. 1 Chronicles chapter 17. I want to read verses
16 and 17. And David the king came and sat
before the Lord and said, who am I, O Lord God, and what is
mine house that thou hast brought me hitherto? And yet this was a small thing
in thine eyes, O God, for thou hast also spoken of thy servant's
house for a great while to come, and has regarded me according
to the estate of a man of high degree, O Lord God. January the 1st, 1773, John Newton
preached a message from these two verses. His subject was the
grace of God, and he introduced to his congregation and taught
them to sing a new hymn. The words were, amazing grace,
how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was
lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see. T'was grace that
taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear
the hour I first believed. Through many dangers, toils,
and snares, I have already come. Tis grace has brought me safe
thus far, and grace will lead me home. The Lord has promised
good to me. His word my hope secures. He will my shield and portion
be as long as life endures. Yes, when this flesh and heart
shall fail and mortal life shall cease, I shall possess within
the veil a life of joy and peace. The earth shall soon dissolve
like snow, the sun forbear to shine. But God, who called me
here below, will be forever mine." January the 1st, 1773. And John Newton knew that there
would be a man in his congregation who was convinced that he had
sinned in such a degree that God would never save a wretch
like him. Although this hymn is a testimony
of John Newton's life, the slave trader, the blasphemer, most wicked man that he ever
knew. And yet God's grace saved him. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound, that saved a wretch like me. I don't have John Newton's
outline for his message from these two verses. If I did, I
probably would use it. But I don't. And so I want us
to look at these two verses with this outline first. We will look in our text at how
God's grace amazed David. How God's grace in our text amazed
David. Second, how God's covenant of
grace amazes men. And third, how God's message
of grace draws sinners to Christ. First, how God's grace amazed
David. David was now king over the nation
of Israel. And he had expressed, you can
read this in the first part of this chapter, he had expressed
to the prophet Nathan his desire to build a house for the Lord. And Nathan told him, do whatsoever
is in your heart. And that night God spoke to Nathan
and said, you go back And you tell David, my servant David,
he will not build me a house, but I will build his house. I will build him a house. Notice that in the last part
of verse 10. Furthermore, I tell thee that
the Lord will build thee an house. The house that David would have
built no doubt would have been much like his son Solomon later
built, a house made of cedar wood and stones, great stones,
and decorated with precious metal, gold and silver and bronze. The house that God would build
David would be in David's seed being given a throne forever. God's Word we know concerned
his son Solomon for sure, but a much greater than Solomon is
here. A much greater than Solomon is
here. The angel of the Lord, Gabriel,
when he announced to Mary that she should have a child, part
of his announcement was, he shall be called Jesus and given the
throne of his father David and of his kingdom, there shall be
no end. If you look in Psalms 89, for
just a moment, in this Psalm, of course, David speaks of the
covenant that God would make with him and with his seed, his
son. And as you read through the psalm,
we're just going to read the first few verses, but it's obvious
that Solomon is spoken of in this psalm, in the covenant that
God made with David, but a much greater than Solomon. In Psalm
69, David said, I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever.
With my mouth will I make known my faithfulness to all generations. For I have said, mercy shall
be built up forever. Thy faithfulness shalt thou establish
in the very heavens. I have made a covenant with my
chosen. I have sworn unto David my servant,
thy seed. Now as I said, this covenant,
this promise, refers to Solomon, yes, but to the Lord Jesus Christ. Thy seed will I establish forever. and build up thy throne to all
generations. And the same is true here in
our text in 1 Chronicles chapter 17. God, through the prophet Nathan,
told David that he would build him a house. And by that, he
meant that his seed would reign over the kingdom of God, that
he would be established upon a throne. Solomon reigned a long
time, but his reign came to an end. But the Lord Jesus Christ,
the seed, the son of David, His throne has no end. It is established
in the heavens and no power, no authority will ever overthrow
the Lord Jesus Christ, the King. Well, let's look at how this
message of grace, how it affected David. What was David's reaction
to this message? The first thing we are told is,
He was amazed at the grace of God. The first thing, he sat
before the Lord. And David the king came and sat
before the Lord. Now what does that mean? We know
that when David was made king, eventually that the Ark of the
Covenant, which during the reign of Saul and those who preceded
him, the times of the judges, The Ark of the Covenant had been
neglected. In one of the Psalms, David said,
we found it in a field. But David's heart, his desire
was to bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. And after he had
built his house, that's when he desired to build a house for
the Lord. When he brought the Covenant,
the Ark of the Covenant, which was a, you know the Ark of the
Covenant, you know it had the mercy seat, the cherubims, the
law of God placed in the Ark of the Covenant, all of it a
picture and type of Jesus Christ our Lord. He is the mercy seat. God told Moses in the law that
there, where? At the mercy seat. That's where
I will meet with you. And that's where God meets with
sinners. In peace, in grace, in mercy. in Christ, in the Lord Jesus
Christ. But anyway, David pitched a tent
there in Jerusalem, and they brought the Ark of the Covenant
there. It's not the tabernacle. David as a king, he was not a
priest. Only the high priest could have
gone in where the Ark of the Covenant was in the tabernacle,
and he could only do that once a year, and not without blood.
Not without blood. So the Ark of the Covenant is
in this tent that David had pitched, and when he hears this message
of God's amazing grace, I will build you a house. You want to
build me a house? I'm going to build you a house.
One of your sons is going to reign upon the throne of God
forever and ever. Of His kingdom there shall be
no end. And David comes in and the scripture
here says he sat before the Lord. He sat before the covenant of
God, no doubt. An emblem, a type of God himself. Amazed, I believe. Overwhelmed. Overwhelmed. He's going to make with me a
covenant. He just sat there for a while. I tell you, this is what God's
grace accomplishes. When God's grace visits a sinner,
it shuts his mouth. He's overwhelmed, just as David
was. That's the first thing we are
told. He sat before the Lord. How long? I don't know. How long? The second thing we see is he
asked a question. Who am I? Who am I? Who am I? This question that
he asked makes me think of his words in the Psalm 8 that he
wrote when he said, When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the
moon, and the stars which thou hast ordained, what is man? This is what the graces of God
does. What is man? Who am I? Who am I like Mephibosheth
when he came before King David and confessed himself to be nothing
more than a dead dog? Who am I? What is man that thou art mindful
of him? And the third thing we see David
acknowledge the Lord's goodness as he no doubt is overwhelmed
with God's grace. He acknowledges, Thou hast regarded
me. Now listen to these words. Thou
hast, David speaking to God, amazed, overwhelmed at this announcement
that Nathan had given him from the Lord that God would build
him a house. Thou hast regarded me. Now listen. according to the estate of a
man of high degree, O Lord God. What does that mean? Thou hast treated me, thou hast
regarded me according to the estate of a man of high degree,
O Lord God. Isn't David saying you have regarded
me as somebody? A man of high degree? You have
regarded me as somebody important? I don't deserve this. I couldn't
merit this. You have regarded me as somebody
who's worthy. Isn't he really saying, you have
regarded me as your dear son? Isn't that the teaching of the
word of God? that it is for Christ's sake
that we are forgiven, that it is for Christ's sake that he's
gracious unto us, that it is in Christ and in Christ alone
that we are accepted. It has nothing to do with us,
with our desert, with our merit, with our earning, with our working,
It's all according to God's grace. For Christ's sake, thou hast
forgiven me. That's the reason we pray in
Christ's name, isn't it? We know that for God to hear
us, we must come to him in Christ, through Christ, because he is
the one mediator between God and us. We don't go to human
priests, we don't go through any kind of churches, anything
like that. If we're going to go to God,
we must go to Him through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thou hast regarded
me for Christ's sake. Now the second thing I want to
mention, how God's covenant of grace amazes men. God's word
to David amazed him. overwhelmed him, and I believe
we see that in those three things, setting before the Lord, asking
who am I, and then confessing thou hast regarded me as one
of high degree. Now, how God's covenant of grace
amazes men. God's grace is part and parcel
of God's everlasting covenant. We never read in the scripture
the covenant of grace. I realize that. We read of His
everlasting covenant, of His new covenant. But the new covenant,
the everlasting covenant, grace is what it's all about. It's
about God's grace. In God's covenant of grace, A
surety is provided by grace. Now this surety is the Lord Jesus
Christ, the eternal God who took into union with his person the
body that God had prepared him. The scripture says he took upon
him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men.
What a display of God's grace is the incarnation of the Lord
Jesus Christ. For you know the grace of our
Lord, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became
poor. The incarnation, what does that
mean? That means that people celebrate his birth in just a
few weeks now, Christmas, and joy to the world! The Lord is
born. God came into this world as a
man by taking into union with his person that body that was
prepared him from the Virgin Mary. Absolutely, God never changed. He's always been God. He's always
going to be God, eternal Son of God. but he took into union
with his person, the body, born of a virgin, and lived for 33
and a half years, more or less, here in this world, as a surety
of the covenant that God had made with his people in him. Now the surety, the surety is
charged with paying the debt, paying the debt. You know, sin
is spoken of as a debt, isn't it? When we think of him as a
surety, we know that he paid the debt, our sin debt. There's
no way to calculate the number of our sins, but he paid the
debt. He paid a debt he did not owe.
I owed a debt. I could not pay. He's a surety
of the covenant. But he's not only the surety
of the covenant, he's a high priest and sacrifice of the covenant. We had offended God. We had sinned
against God, all of us by nature. We needed a sacrifice. We needed
a propitiation. That word propitiation means
to appease. And yes, God, it's against God's
nature, His holy nature, sin is. And that's what all of us
are guilty of. You know, God's holiness and
His justice is not like His mercy. God can show mercy or not show
mercy, and He's still God. That's His prerogative. But as
holy, just God, He must punish sin or cease to be God. And it is in the Lord Jesus Christ
that He punished the sins, punished Him for the sins, rather, of
His people. He is our high priest and our
sacrifice. Someone took the word grace as
an acronym And they used each letter like this, God's riches
at Christ's expense. God's riches, such as pardon,
forgiveness of sins, adoption as a son of God. God's riches
at Christ's expense. God's law must be honored. His
justice must be satisfied. This is the work of Him who came
into this world, both to obey God's law and to suffer the penalty
of that law which you and I, His people, which we had broken. God's covenant of grace displays
the grace of God in providing the Savior, providing His own
Son. And second, in God's covenant
of grace, those chosen to salvation were chosen by grace. Those chosen
to salvation, those chosen to partake of the benefits of the
work of Jesus Christ as a surety, as a savior, as a sacrifice,
as a mediator, Those who were chosen to partake of these benefits
were chosen by grace. You know, that's illustrated.
The Apostle Paul illustrates that in Romans chapter 9, the
two sons, Esau and Jacob. By natural right, by custom,
Esau. He's the oldest. He's to get
the blessing. He's to get the birthright. But
no. that the purpose of God according
to election might stand, God chose the younger, chose Jacob. And every child of God, those
who were blessed before the foundation of the world. We read that just
a moment ago in Ephesians chapter 1. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. according as He hath chosen us
in Him, before the foundation of the world. And then, did you
hear this, that we should be holy? Isn't that wonderful? God chose us that we would be
holy. In other words, one day, as holy
as He is, He chose us to that. What did
we do to deserve that? Who am I? No wonder David said,
who am I? The grace of God in choosing
those named in the covenant. And third, in God's covenant
of grace, those who are chosen, who are called and saved, it's
all by grace. Look with me in 2 Timothy chapter
1. 2 Timothy chapter 1. 2 Timothy chapter
1, verse 9. hath saved us. Now, who does
who refer to? Well, the antecedent is God.
God. God hath saved us and called
us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according
to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ
Jesus before the world began. His own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. What
am I saying? I'm saying that everything about
the covenant, the everlasting covenant, the new covenant, the
covenant of grace, everything about God and our relationship
to Him, it all amazes us. The grace of God amazes us. But the third thing
I want to speak about for just a few minutes, how God's message
of grace is meant to draw sinners to Christ. If you look with me
in John 6 and verse 44, how this message of grace is meant. What's
the purpose of me preaching on grace? What was the purpose of
John Newton preaching on the subject of grace so many hundreds
of years ago now? Because there was a man there
in the congregation, probably more than one, who was convinced
that he had sinned beyond the point where he could not be saved,
where it was impossible for him to be saved. Many of you know who I'm speaking
of, William Kalper, the man who wrote that wonderful hymn, There
is a Fountain Filled with Blood. And yet at this particular point
in his life, he was convinced that he had gone beyond the pale,
beyond the realm. There was no hope for him. Listen,
God's grace can reach the center that is the farthest off. How
far is that? I tell you, like Brother Richardson
used to say, it's so far that we can't find ourselves. We can't
find our way back. That's how far all of us are.
But God's grace can reach the sinner who is the farthest off. Reach John Newton. The message of grace is meant
to draw sinners to Christ. Here in John 6 and verse 44,
the Lord said, no man can come to me except the Father which
has sent me draw him And I will raise him up at the last day.
How does God draw men to Christ? You know, our Lord said, And
I, if I be lifted up, shall draw all unto me. How does the Father
draw men to Christ? He draws men to Christ through
the preaching of this message of grace. The gospel of God's
grace He uses, God the Holy Spirit uses in drawing men to Christ. You know, when God gave the law
to Moses, the law of Moses on Mount Sinai, everything about
that law said, stand back, stand back, don't touch the mountain,
don't even let an animal touch the mountain, because sure, if
you do, Death is going to be the result. Everything about
the law says, stand back, listen. Everything about the gospel says,
come, come, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. Everything about this message.
Let me mention three things about it, the message of grace. This
message says, all things are ready. That's the message that
we have. All things are ready. All things
are prepared. This is the Savior's blood. All things are ready. His blood
has already been shed to wash away your sins. There's a righteousness
that He has to give to all who come. A righteousness that justifies
you before God. All things are ready. When you
invite someone to your house, maybe for lunch, maybe for a
meal, and you work, you ladies, you work there and you get everything
just right and your guests come and you're able to say, all things
are ready. You don't say, you need to get
in the kitchen there and get that pan out and get those potatoes
and start peeling those. No, all things are ready. That's
the message of the gospel, isn't it? All things are ready. Christ has already bled and died. He's already suffered for your
sins. All things are ready. That's the first thing about
this message of grace. All things are ready. It's designed
to draw men to Christ. And that's the first thing that
we hear, all things are ready. Second, this message says, come
as you are. Come as you are. How often, I would imagine this
is true of just about everyone who's ever come. You say, how
do you mean come to Christ? I mean by faith, my friends,
look to Christ, trust in him, call upon him. Lean upon Him,
whatever word you want to use. Just put all the weight of your
salvation upon Jesus Christ and Him alone. But most people, when under conviction,
they think, well, you know, the first thing I need to do, I need
to clean up. I need to clean up. Remember this, Christ came to
save sinners. He didn't come to save cleaned
up sinners. No, He came to save sinners. Someone said, but I have such
a hard heart. Well, where are you going to
get a soft heart, a new heart? You going to manufacture one?
I don't think so. Look to Christ. Come to Christ
for that new heart. Well, I'm so filthy. I recognize
my sins, there are so many, they're so great. Where in the world
are you going to get cleansed if you don't come to Christ?
His blood is the only agent that can wash away sin. Well, I'm filled with doubts.
I'm filled with doubts and fears. Well, come to Christ. and let
him remove those doubts and fears. Through many dangers, toils and
snares, I have already come. It is grace that brought me safe
thus far, and grace will lead me home. And third, this message says,
now listen. First of all, it says all things
are ready. Second, it says come as you are. And third, you will
be received. You will be received. I was reading John Bunyan's book,
Grace Abounding, to the chief of centers this past week. And it really, that book is just
his testimony of what he experienced and God working in his heart.
and bringing him to know him as his Lord and Savior. But he
said in this testimony, his experience, he said, one day, two powerful
thoughts came over me. And he said, I was distraught. I was so distraught by these
two powerful thoughts. One thought was, I'm not one
of God's elect. I'm not one of those that God
chose. But notice here in John 6, in
verse 37, how that's cleared up. All that the Father giveth
me shall come to me. How could a person know that
God chose him? Only by coming to Christ. only by coming to Christ. That's
the reason the Apostle Peter said, make your calling and election
sure. You don't make your election
and your calling sure. No, your calling first. Come to Christ. All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me. If you come to Christ, then
you know. God gave you to Christ. He gave you, He chose you in
Christ before the foundation of the world. And let me tell
you something, you would have no desire to come to Christ.
You really wouldn't. A dead man has no desire to come
to the table. You can have as much beautiful
food, well-prepared food if you like, And the dead man, the corpse,
he's not going to move a muscle. He has no desire. He can have
no desire. Oh, but when Christ called Lazarus
out of that tomb, what did he say? Loose him and let him go. And when Christ, the Holy Spirit
draws a man, gives him life, he desires to come to Christ. And John Bunyan said the other
powerful thought that he had that so distraught him was, there's
no room. There's no room. Everyone's already come and filled
up the house. There's no room. And then he
said he found in the scripture, Yet there is room. Yet there is room in one of our
Lord's parables. When the man went out and he
brought in the poor, the maimed, the halt, and the blind, and
then he said to the master, There's still room, yet there is room. And oh how that relieved his
fears. For a time, for a time, the grace
of God, air-sensed by faith, I saw that fountain. Redeeming
love shall be my theme. That's what William Cowper said.
Redeeming love shall be my theme until I die. I'm overwhelmed
with the grace of God, aren't you? And I want it always to
be that way. How in the world God could ever
save a wretch like me? It's just amazing. It's so amazing. And I'm sure if you're here this
morning, you say the same thing. Oh, it's amazing. Amazing grace. Well, I pray the Lord will bless
this word to someone here today.